1.
Spranger Barry
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Spranger Barry was an Irish actor. He was born in Skinners Row, Dublin, the son of a silversmith and he took over the business but was not successful. His first appearance on the stage was at the Theatre Royal, Smock Alley, Dublin, on the 5 February 1744 and his first London appearance was made in 1746 as Othello at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Here his talents were recognized, and in Hamlet and Macbeth he alternated with David Garrick. This resulted in his leaving Drury Lane for the Covent Garden Theatre in 1750, accompanied by Mrs Cibber, both houses now at once put on Romeo and Juliet for a series of rival performances, and Barrys Romeo was preferred by the critics to Garricks. In 1758 Barry opened the Crow Street theatre in Dublin, and he staged many successful productions but seems to have lived beyond his means. In 1767 returned to London to play at the Haymarket Theatre, in 1774 they both moved to Covent Garden, where Barry remained until his death. Dublin, M. H. Gill & son, wikisource Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Barry, Spranger

2.
Paudge Behan
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Paudge Rodger Behan is an Irish actor and writer. Behan has also appeared in the feature films A Man of No Importance, Conspiracy of Silence and Veronica Guerin and he has also auditioned unsuccessfully for Neighbours and popular UK black comedy, Doctors. Born in January 1965, Paudge Behan is the son of Cathal Goulding, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and the Official IRA, as a teenager, Goulding was involved with the IRA youth wing Fianna Éireann. After Brendan Behans early death at the age of 41 on 20 March 1964, the house came into Paudge Behans ownership, and he sold it reluctantly for €1.65 million in February 2006. Before turning to acting, Behan had a career in journalism in Ireland. However, Behan found he could not concentrate on his art in Germany as he was working too hard in the evenings in nightclubs and bars to earn money. Also, as he was doing too much drinking as well, so unless I wanted to start a new art style where it wouldve been very shakey to look at and he resolved to go to London to study acting. After applying to three schools he was accepted by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. For about three years from 1990 or 1991, he lived with his friends from RADA, David Harewood and Danny Cerqueira, Harewood recalls that his housemates were fantastic characters – It was a wonderful, experimental time. Wed spend long nights discussing art, life and politics, smoking weed, drinking lots of whisky, listening to music and throwing furniture on the fire. He also acted as a thug in the comedy film London Kills Me, other TV roles included characters in episodes of Highlander, The Series and The New Adventures of Robin Hood. He was subsequently handpicked by English novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford to be the male protagonist of the made-for-television film A Secret Affair, other films in which Behan appeared include A Man of No Importance, Conspiracy of Silence and Veronica Guerin. In the latter film, he played Brian Meehan, who was convicted of murdering Irish crime journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996, the ten-minute film won Best Film at the Digital Media Awards in Dublin in February 2007. Behan appeared in the short film Wake Up, in which he played the lead character Nathan, the film is the first 20 minutes of a proposed feature film. Most recently, Behan has appeared in the season of the Irish crime drama series Love/Hate. He played the role of Terence May, an Irish drugs supplier based in Spain, concerning acting, Behan has been quoted as saying this is a good business when its working, but when its not, its awful. The woman was found on 11 July with 13 stab wounds, including a fatal throat wound, Behan, who had been resident in Arcidosso for part of the year since 2006, was arrested after seeking treatment twice at a hospital near Arcidosso for a cut on his thigh. In an interview with The Irish Times, he claimed he had first gone to the hospital on 10 July after cutting himself in the thigh while unpacking furniture and other objects delivered from the USA

3.
Dion Boucicault
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Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot, commonly known as Dion Boucicault, was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the English-speaking theatre, the New York Times heralded him in his obituary as the most conspicuous English dramatist of the 19th century. Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot was born and educated in Dublin where he lived on Gardiner Street and his mother was Anne Darley, sister of the poet and mathematician George Darley. The Darleys were an important Dublin family influential in many fields, Anne was married to Samuel Smith Boursiquot, of Huguenot ancestry, but the identity of the boys father is questionable. He was probably Dionysius Lardner, a lodger at his mothers house at a time when she was separated from her husband. Dion went to London and was enrolled at University College School at the age of 13, after a year in London, Boursiquot/Boucicault left to pursue acting in Cheltenham. The young actor used the stage name Lee Morton and he joined William Charles Macready and made his first appearance upon the stage with Benjamin Webster at Bristol, England. Soon afterwards he began to write plays, occasionally in conjunction and his first play, A Legend of the Devils Dyke, opened in Brighton in 1838. Three years later he found success as a dramatist with London Assurance. Produced at Covent Garden on 4 March 1841, its cast included such actors as Charles Mathews, William Farren, Mrs Nesbitt. The last two plays were adaptations of French plays, in his play The Vampire, Boucicault made his début as a leading actor as the vampire Sir Alan Raby. Although the play itself had mixed reviews, Boucicaults characterisation was praised as a dreadful, in 1854 he wrote and played the title character in Andy Blake, or, The Irish Diamond. From 1854 to 1860, Boucicault resided in the United States, Boucicault and his actress wife, Agnes Robertson, toured America. He also wrote successful plays there, acting in most of them. These included the popular Jessie Brown, or, The Relief of Lucknow in 1858, in the summer of 1859, Boucicault took over as manager of Burtons New Theatre on Broadway just below Amity Street. After extensive remodelling, he renamed his new showplace the Winter Garden Theatre, there on 5 December 1859, he premiered his new sensation, the anti-slavery potboiler The Octoroon, in which he also starred. This was the first play to treat seriously the Black American population, on his return to England, he produced at the Adelphi Theatre a dramatic adaptation of Gerald Griffins novel, The Collegians, entitled The Colleen Bawn. This play, one of the most successful of the times, was performed in almost every city of the United Kingdom, although it made its author a handsome fortune, he lost it in the management of various London theatres

4.
Wilfrid Brambell
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Henry Wilfrid Brambell was an Irish film and television actor best known for his role in the British television series Steptoe and Son. He also performed alongside the Beatles in their film A Hard Days Night, Brambell was born in Dublin, the youngest of three sons born to Henry Lytton Brambell, a cashier at the Guinness Brewery, and his wife, Edith Marks, a former opera singer. The family surname was changed from Bramble by Wilfrids grandfather Frederick William Brambell and his two older brothers were Frederick Edward Brambell and James Christopher Marks Jim Brambell. His first appearance was as a child, entertaining the troops during the First World War. On leaving school he worked part-time as a reporter for The Irish Times and he also did repertory at Swansea, Bristol and Chesterfield. In the Second World War he joined the British military forces entertainment organisation ENSA, Brambell had roles in film and television films from 1947, first appearing in Odd Man Out as a tram passenger in 1947. All of these earned him a reputation for playing old men. He appeared as Bill Gaye in the 1962 Maurice Chevalier/Hayley Mills picture and he was heard in the original soundtrack of The Canterbury Tales, which was one of the quickest selling West End soundtrack albums of all time. It featured a Beatles-esque guitar riff with Brambell reciting words about the Beatles splitting up, the B-side was The Decimal Song which, at the time of Britain adopting decimal currency, was politically charged. He played Paul McCartneys fictitious grandfather in the Beatles 1964 film and he featured in many prominent theatre roles. In 1966 he played Ebenezer Scrooge in a version of A Christmas Carol. This was adapted for radio the same year and appeared on Radio 2 on Christmas Eve, Brambells booming baritone voice surprised many listeners, he played the role straight, true to the Dickens original, and not in the stereotype Albert Steptoe character. In 1971, he starred in the premiere of Eric Chappells play, The Banana Box and this part was later renamed Rigsby for the TV adaptation called Rising Damp, with Leonard Rossiter replacing Brambell in the role. This began as a pilot on the BBCs Comedy Playhouse, and it ran from 1962 to 1974 including a five-year hiatus. There were also two feature film spin-offs, a show and an American incarnation entitled Sanford and Son. A running joke is made throughout the film of his character being a clean old man, in contrast to his being referred to as a dirty old man in Steptoe. In real life, he was indeed nothing like his Steptoe persona, being dapper, however, it closed after just one performance. Apart from his role as the older Steptoe, Brambell achieved recognition in many films and his performance in The Terence Davies Trilogy won him critical acclaim, far greater than any achieved for Steptoe and Son

5.
George Brent
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George Brent was an Irish-born American stage, film, and television actor in American cinema. Brent was born George Patrick Nolan in Ballinasloe, County Galway, in 1904 to John J. and his mother was a native of Clonfad, Moore, County Roscommon. During the Irish War of Independence, Brent was part of the IRA and he fled Ireland with a bounty set on his head by the British government, although he later claimed only to have been a courier for guerrilla leader and tactician Michael Collins. Ironically, in light of his presumed IRA activities, on Brents 18 March 1935 immigration document, he listed his race as Irish, Brent returned to the United States in 1921. Some time later he toured with a production of Abies Irish Rose, during the next five years, he acted in stock companies in Colorado, Rhode Island, Florida, and Massachusetts. In 1930, he appeared on Broadway in Love, Honor and he eventually moved to Hollywood, and made his first film, Under Suspicion, in 1930. Over the next two years, he appeared in a number of films produced by Universal Studios and Fox. He remained at Warner Bros. for the next 20 years and he continued to appear on television until 1960, having appeared on the religion anthology series, Crossroads. He was cast in the lead in the 1956 television series, in 1978, he made one last film, the made-for-television production Born Again. George Brent received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the first, at 1709 Vine St. for his film contributions, Brent was married five times, Helen Louise Campbell, Ruth Chatterton, Constance Worth, Ann Sheridan, and Janet Michaels. Chatterton, Worth, and Sheridan were also actresses, Chatterton and Sheridan were both fellow Warner Bros. players. His final marriage to Janet Michaels, a model and dress designer. They had a son and a daughter, Brent also carried on a lengthy relationship with his frequent Warner Bros. co-star, actress Bette Davis, who described her last meeting with Brent after many years of estrangement. He was suffering from advanced emphysema, and she expressed great sadness at his ill health, George Brent died in 1979 in Solana Beach, California

6.
Gustavus Vaughan Brooke
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Gustavus Vaughan Brooke was an Irish stage actor who enjoyed success in Ireland, England and Australia. Brooke was born in Dublin, Ireland, the eldest son of Gustavus Brooke, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and his wife Frances, daughter of Matthew Bathurst. He was educated at a school at Edgeworthstown under Lovell Edgeworth, a brother of the novelist Maria Edgeworth, and afterwards at Dublin at a school run by the Rev. William Jones. There he showed talent in a play, when he was allowed to see William Charles Macready perform in Dublin in March 1832 he was determined to go on the stage. He was billed as a gentleman under 14 years of age. Other appearances followed as Virginius and Young Norval and he appeared at the Royal Victoria Theatre, London, in October 1834 as Virginius with little success. Brooke toured the English provincial theatres for three years, and then played a season at Dublin in October 1837 and he had a qualified success, which was followed by a more successful season at Belfast in January 1838. He continued to play in the provinces and in Ireland, and in 1841 accepted an engagement with Macreadys company in London and he returned to the provinces and refused several offers of parts in London. He had successful seasons at Manchester, Liverpool and other towns, among his characters being Richard III, Romeo, Macbeth, Virginius, Hamlet, Othello, Iago. He played Othello to Macreadys Iago at Manchester, later on he was with Edwin Forrest, and in October 1846 took the part of Romeo at Dublin to Helena Faucits Juliet. Other roles opposite Faucit included Claude Melnotte, Orlando, Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, Sir Giles Overreach, Leontes, on 3 January 1848 Brooke was a success as Othello at the Olympic Theatre, London. In the same season his rendering of Sir Giles Overreach was pronounced by one critic as not falling far short of Edmund Keans, Brooke, however, did not have the temperament to make the best use of his success. He was not a businessman and drank too much. However, in November of that year he was playing with Helena Faucit again, in October 1851 he was married to Marianne Bray. In December 1851 he went to America, and during the next 18 months had much success, in 1854 he met George Coppin and agreed to go to Australia to give two hundred performances in the major towns there and in New Zealand. He left England on 25 November 1854, played a week at Cape Town Garrison Theatre, the Australian tour opened three days later at the Queens Theatre, Melbourne, Brooke stayed in Australia for more than six years. When he arrived he had a repertoire of some 40 characters and his voice had regained its beauty, his art had matured. He did some of his best work while in Australia, the critics were unanimous in placing him as one of the great actors of all time, although occasional failures were admitted, Romeo being one of his less successful characters

7.
John Brougham
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John Brougham was an Irish-American actor and dramatist. His father was a painter, and died young. His mother was the daughter of a Huguenot, whom political adversity had forced into exile, John was the eldest of three children. The other two died in youth, and, the father being dead and the mother left penniless. He was prepared for college at an academy at Trim, County Meath, twenty miles from Dublin, there he acquired classical learning, and formed interesting and useful associations and acquaintances, and there also he became interested in private theatricals. Brougham fell in with a crowd that put on their own shows, though he most always traded off larger roles so he could pay attention to his studies, Brougham took quite an interest in acting. He was a frequent attendant, moreover, at the Theatre Royal in Hawkins Street, the impetus toward his theatrical career was, doubtless, received by him at this time and in this way. Before leaving the university he, by chance, had become acquainted with the actress Madame Vestris and he went to London in 1830, and, after a brief experience of poverty, suddenly determined to become an actor. His acquaintance with Madame Vestris led to him being engaged at the theatre, in 1831 he was a member of Madame Vestriss company, and wrote his first play, a burlesque. His success at small or low comic roles such as Dazzle earned him the nickname Little Johnny Brougham, a moniker which he embraced, stone and Edwin Forrests Metamora, or The Last of the Wamponoags, and Irish Yankee, or, The Birthday of Freedom. He was later connected with Wallacks and Dalys theatres, and wrote plays for both, in 1860 he returned to London, where he adapted or wrote several plays, including The Dukes Motto for Fechter. After the American Civil War he returned to New York City and his last appearance was in 1879 as OReilly, the detective, in Boucicaults Rescued, and he died in New York City. Brougham wrote upwards of 120 plays, mostly comedies, earning him the nickname The American Aristophanes from critics of the time and he was the founder of the Lotus Club in New York, and for a time its president. He also edited there in 1852 a comic paper called The Lantern, Brougham is said to have been the original of Harry Lorrequer in Charles Levers novel. He was twice married, in 1838 to Emma Williams, and in 1844 to Mrs Annette Hawley, wilson, James Grant, Fiske, John, eds

8.
W. Graham Brown
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W. Graham Brown was an Irish actor who appeared on Broadway and in films during the early 20th century. William Graham Brown was born in Ireland on January 1,1870 and he appeared on Broadway and in films during the early 20th century. He was married to Marie Tempest, an English singer and actress known as the queen of her profession and he is perhaps best known for creating the role of David Bliss in Noël Cowards Hay Fever in 1925. Graham Browne at the Internet Broadway Database W. Graham Brown at the Internet Movie Database

9.
Fulton Burley
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Fulton Burley was an Irish-Canadian performer, most widely known for his work in Disneyland. He later marveled at his Irish luck saying, The peculiar thing is I was at the Golden Horseshoe for 25 years, at age 7, he performed in church weddings, and by 14, on radio in Windsor, where he worked three mornings a week before school. He, also, went on to sing with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Fulton attended J. C. Patterson Collegiate Institute in Windsor, followed by Wayne State University in Detroit, where he studied law with a minor in music. During World War II, he served as a member of the 40th Special Services Division, under the command of actor Melvyn Douglas, traveling to China, Burma and India. In 1962, he was playing at the Hacienda Hotel in Las Vegas when he received a call from his pal Wally Boag, with whom he had worked as a contract player at MGM. Wally, who had been performing in the Golden Horseshoe Revue for seven years, explained one of his fellow cast members had become seriously ill. Fulton did, and subsequently, lit up the stage with his jovial nature, in the Enchanted Tiki Room, Fulton can be heard as the voice of the Irish parrot, Michael. Later, he entertained Disney fans across the country, when he traveled on special tours promoting such films as the animated classic Cinderella, after a quarter-of-a century with The Walt Disney Company, Fulton retired from the Golden Horseshoe Revue in 1987. In 1995, he was honored as a Disney Legend for his work at Disneyland Attractions, in 1997, reprised his role for The Enchanted Tiki Room at Magic Kingdom along with Wally Boag and Thurl Ravenscroft. Burley died from heart failure on May 7,2007 at Sunrise Assisted Living at La Costa in Carlsbad, legendary Golden Horseshoe Performer Fulton Burley Passes Away. Disney Legends, Fulton Burley Fulton Burley at the Golden Horseshoe Revue in Disneyland video on YouTube Article on the death of Burley Interview with Fulton Burleys longtime friend, Wally Boag

10.
Charles Francis Coghlan
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Charles Francis Coghlan was an Anglo-Irish actor and playwright once popular on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Charles F. Coghlan was born on June 11,1842, in Paris, France to British subjects, Francis, Amie Coghlan was born on the Channel Island of Jersey sometime around 1821. Charles Coghlan was later raised in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and Hull, Yorkshire, Charles Coghlan began his stage career in 1859 as a minor player with the Sadlers Wells Theatres summer tour. During their engagement in Dublin, Ireland Coghlan approached John Baldwin Buckstone, then manager of the Haymarket Theatre, over the following few seasons Coghlan would play a number of supporting roles that steadily increased his stature as an actor. Coghlan would remain with Prince of Wales over the seven or eight seasons playing leading roles such as Geoffrey Delamayn in Collins’ Man and Wife”. In 1876 Augustin Daly brought Coghlan to America where he would spend the balance of his career. He made his Broadway debut on September 12,1876, at the Fifth Avenue Theater, two months later, at the same venue, Coghlan played Orlando opposite Fanny Davenports Rosalind in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The next season Coghlan was engaged as the man at the Union Square Theater. He returned to London in 1881 to play Col. Woods and this great success was tempered the following year by the failure of his play Citizen Pierre, in which he made his last New York performance. During his career Coghlan had played opposite his sister, Rose Coghlan and his last appearance on the stage was at Houston, Texas, on October 28,1899, as Clarence in The Royal Box. Actress Louisa Elizabeth Thorn, a native of London, England, was apparently Charles Coghlan’s common-law wife for twenty-five years or more and the mother of his daughter Gertrude. When in 1893 Coghlan married nineteen-year-old Kuhne Beveridge, a sculptor and aspiring actress from a prominent Illinois family. Rose Coghlan soon came to her brother’s defense stating she had known for years that Louisa, not long afterwards though, Rose decided to dissolve the business partnership she had with her brother. Upon learning of her father’s marriage, an upset Gertrude Coghlan reportedly told the press, “I am Charles Coghlan’s adopted daughter and not related to him in any way. ”Perhaps as an attempt to save his daughter the stigma of a birth, Coghlan later supported Gertrude’s claim that she was adopted. Within a year of his marriage Coghlan would return to Louisa leaving Beveridge to seek a divorce on the grounds of desertion. A few years later Gertrude joined her fathers company playing Juliet in the Broadway production of the Royal Box, Gertrude Coghlan, who took to the stage at age sixteen, would go on to have a theatrical career spanning nearly fifty years. The stage actor and director, Charles F. Coghlan, was thought to be Coghlan’s son, in fact he was his nephew. She died in April 1900 at the age of thirty-six leaving Charles to be adopted by her sister, charles’ father, according to his mothers New York Times obituary, was Sydney Battam, a London banker

11.
Martin Crosbie
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Martin Crosbie was an Irish tenor and older brother to Paddy Crosbie of The School Around the Corner. Martin, who was known as The Millers daughter, a song he made his own. The eldest in a family of four, he was christened John Martin but was known as Mossy to his family and his mother and father came from Wexford town. His father, Martin Crosbie, was a foreman-fitter and turner on the Permanent way, before coming to Dublin, his father had earned quite a reputation in his native town, both as a singer and comedian. He won the Wexford Feis gold medal in 1904 in the tenor competition, martins paternal grandmother was a Bolger. She was reputed to have had a voice, and used sing in Bride Street Church in Wexford. So, quite a history of singers in his family, before his singing career began Martin worked as a fitter / mechanic in CIEs Summerhill depot. One night in the late 1930s himself and the legendary Billy Morton went to a show in the Olympia, in the bar during the interval Billy and other friends talked him into singing a song. One song led to another and soon there were people in the bar than in the audience. The manager came in and said if he could keep an audience away from the show he should be able to keep them in their seats the following week, thats how he joined Lorcan Bourke Productions. Martin caused a bit of stir the next Monday night when he cycled to the Olympia, walked through the door, hung up his bicycle clips. I didnt know anything then about using dressing-rooms and make-up he had laughed and it was when he was playing Belfast with Harry Bailey that he met a young girl, just left school, called Thelma Ramsey. When he came back to the Royal in Dublin, Thelma was the accompanist, pretty soon they were walking out They toured with some of showbizs big names, including famous comic Max Miller. They missed out on playing the London Palladium with Max as he was allowed to bring only one other act, a halfpenny was tossed and they lost. Imagine losing the Palladium with a halfpenny… wouldnt have minded had it been half-a-crown and he was a regular in the Clontarf Castle Cabaret from 1964 where he continued to perform six nights a week even when his health started to fail him in the early 80s. In 1979, he received the Variety Artists Trust Society award for his contribution to Irish show-business and he made numerous Television appearances, some of which still survive on R. T. E. and Ulster Television etc. He was a member of Equity and appeared in parts in most of the Films made in Ireland at that time. Of human bondage – Lab Technician A Bus Ride To Success - He played a bus conductor Young Cassidy – - 2nd Hearseman Young Cassidy clips Underground – R. A. F and he is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery Dublin

12.
Liam Cunningham
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Liam Cunningham is an Irish stage and screen actor. He is best known as Davos Seaworth in the HBO epic-fantasy series Game of Thrones, Cunningham was born in East Wall, which is an inner city area of the Northside of Dublin. He has three sisters and a brother, and was brought up in a Roman Catholic household, Cunningham dropped out of secondary school at 15 and pursued a career as an electrician. In the 1980s, Cunningham moved to Zimbabwe for three years where he maintained electrical equipment at a park and trained Zimbabwean electricians. After returning to Ireland, Cunningham became dissatisfied with his work as an electrician and he attended acting classes and began to work in local theatre. He appeared in a production of Studs at The Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, cunninghams debut film role came in Into the West, where he played a police officer. His on-screen acting continued with roles in War of the Buttons and he continued with character roles in RKO281, Falling for a Dancer, Shooting the Past, When the Sky Falls and Stranded. Cunningham came to prominence with his role as Captain Ryan in the critically acclaimed, independent horror film. On television, he appeared as President Richard Tate in the BBC programme Outcasts, in 2012, Cunningham joined the main cast for the second season of HBOs Game of Thrones portraying former smuggler Davos Seaworth, and in 2013 he starred in The Numbers Station alongside John Cusack. He was also cast in season 5 of the BBC series Merlin as a sorcerer and he featured in the music video for High Hopes by Irish alternative rock band Kodaline from their EP The High Hopes. In 2015, he was a guest of the Manchester-based festival Grimmfest, Cunningham currently resides in Dublin with his wife Colette, with whom he has three children, daughter Ellen and sons Liam Jr. and Sean. Liam Cunningham at the Internet Movie Database

13.
Daniel Day-Lewis
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Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor who holds both British and Irish citizenship. Born and raised in London, he excelled on stage at the National Youth Theatre, before being accepted at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which he attended for three years. Despite his traditional training at the Bristol Old Vic, he is considered to be a method actor, known for his constant devotion to. He often remains completely in character for the duration of the schedules of his films. He is one of the most selective actors in the industry, having starred in only five films since 1998. Protective of his life, he rarely gives interviews and makes very few public appearances. He starred in My Beautiful Laundrette, his first critically acclaimed role and he then assumed leading man status with The Unbearable Lightness of Being. He was also nominated in category for In the Name of the Father. He has also won four BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, in November 2012, Time named Day-Lewis the Worlds Greatest Actor. In June 2014, he received a knighthood at Buckingham Palace for services to drama, Day-Lewis was born in Kensington, London, the son of poet Cecil Day-Lewis and English actress Jill Balcon. Day-Lewiss mother was Jewish, and his maternal great-grandparents Jewish families emigrated to England from Latvia and his maternal grandfather, Sir Michael Balcon, was the head of Ealing Studios. Living in Greenwich, Day-Lewis found himself among tough South London children and he mastered the local accent and mannerisms and credits that as being his first convincing performance. Later in life, he has known to speak of himself as very much a disorderly character in his younger years, often in trouble for shoplifting. In 1968, Day-Lewiss parents, finding his behaviour to be too wild, at the school, he was introduced to his three most prominent interests, woodworking, acting, and fishing. The transfer led to his debut at the age of 14 in Sunday Bloody Sunday in which he played a vandal in an uncredited role. He described the experience as heaven, for getting paid £2 to vandalise expensive cars parked outside his local church, for a few weeks in 1972, he and his parents and sister lived at Lemmons, the north London home of Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard. Cecil Day-Lewis had cancer and Howard invited the family to Lemmons as a place they could use to rest, Cecil died there in May that year. Leaving Bedales in 1975, Day-Lewiss unruly attitude had diminished and he needed to make a career choice, although he had excelled on stage at the National Youth Theatre in London, he applied for a five-year apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker, but was rejected due to lack of experience

14.
Dudley Digges (actor)
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Dudley Digges was an Irish stage and film actor. He became acquainted with drama enthusiasts William and Frank Fay and took an interest in acting and he joined W. G. Fays Irish National Dramatic Company, along with others such as Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh, James H. Cousins, Fred Ryan and Máire T. Quinn. Their first production, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, with Maud Gonne in the lead role, and Deirdre, was on 2 April 1902. The company, which had no funds to speak of, acquired a couple of rooms at 34 Lower Camden St. which with the help of friends from Irish-revival societies they turned into a small theatre. However, this proved too small for the plays they were planning to stage and they rehearsed at the Coffee Palace in Westmoreland St. and also used the Molesworth Hall for productions. In 1903 the playwrights and most of the actors and staff from these productions went on to form the Irish National Theatre Society, the society founded the Abbey Theatre. Digges went to America with a group of fellow-actors in 1904, for a time, he was stage manager to Charles Frohman and George Arliss. Digges went to Hollywood in 1930, Digges was artistic director of a company that included Helen Hayes and Edward G. Robinson. Digges appeared in forty films between 1929 and 1946, including the original version of The Maltese Falcon. Digges portrayed Casper Gutman, the later made famous by Sydney Greenstreet in the 1941 version. He played the role of the Heavenly Examiner in both the original Broadway production and the 1930 screen versions of Sutton Vanes play Outward Bound and he also worked as a director on Broadway. Dudley Digges at the Internet Movie Database Dudley Digges at the Internet Broadway Database Dudley Digges at Find a Grave

15.
Thomas Doggett
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Thomas Doggett was an Irish actor. The birth date of 1640 seems unlikely, a more probable date of 1670 is given in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Doggett was born in Dublin, and made his first stage appearance in London in 1691 as Nincompoop in Thomas DUrfeys Love for Money, in this part, and as Solon in the same authors Marriage-Hater Matched, he became popular. He was associated with Colley Cibber and others in the management of the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, and Drury Lane, Doggett is highly spoken of by his contemporaries, both as an actor and as a man, and is frequently referred to in the Tatler and The Spectator. Thomas Doggett is buried in the churchyard of St Johns Church in Eltham High Street, SE9 and there is a plaque on the outside of the church in his memory, which states that Doggett died a pauper. In 1715 Doggett founded the prize of Doggetts Coat and Badge in honour of the House of Hanover, in commemoration of King George I of Great Britains accession to the Throne on 1 August 1714. The winners prize is a traditional watermens orange coat with a silver badge added to the sleeve, displaying the white horse of the House of Hanover and Brunswick, with the word Liberty. The race had to be rowed annually on August first on the River Thames and this deplorable decision to go with the flow obviously marks the start of the subsequent sustained decline in the British national character. The race continues under modified conditions to this day, and is believed to be the oldest continuously contested sporting event, the Company has carried out the instructions in his will to the present day

16.
Charles Doran
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Charles Doran was an Irish actor, one of the last of the touring actor-managers in the tradition of Frank Benson, John Martin-Harvey and Ben Greet. Among those who joined his company at the start of their careers were Cecil Parker, Ralph Richardson, Francis L Sullivan, Doran toured with Benson and other managements, and played in the West End before setting up his own company in 1920. He led it for years, before leaving Britain to work in India. On his return he worked on stage and made television appearances. Doran was born on 1 January 1877 in Cork, the son of Charles Jenkins Doran and he was educated in Cork and privately. In 1899 he made his debut as a member of Frank Bensons touring company, in Julius Caesar at the Theatre Royal. He remained with Benson for two and a half years, during which he made his London debut, as Captain MacMorris in Henry V at the Lyceum, in 1903 Doran toured in a stage version of Tolstoys Resurrection. He was engaged by Fred Terry and Julia Neilson, and appeared at the New Theatre in 1905, in 1906, touring with H B Irving he made his first appearance in the US, and the following year toured in South Africa with Cora Urquhart Brown-Potters company. In 1907 he returned to Bensons company, in 1908 he toured with Mrs Patrick Campbell in The Thunderbolt, and The Second Mrs Tanqueray. During 1909–10 he toured England and Australia with Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton and his parts included the title role in The Merchant of Venice, Lodovico in Othello, Tranio in The Taming of the Shrew and the Soothsayer in Julius Caesar. In October 1910, returning to England, Doran played La Tribe in Count Hannibal at the New Theatre, for the next ten years he played in new, ephemeral works, interspersed with classics. He had an eye for rising talent, and among his recruits were Cecil Parker, Ralph Richardson, Edith Sharpe, Norman Shelley, Abraham Sofaer, Francis L Sullivan. In 1931 he went to India as director of Shakespeares plays at the State Theatre in Jhalawar and he returned to England in 1937. His last London appearance was in Song of Norway and his last Shakespearean role in the theatre was Time in The Winters Tale. He continued to act on stage in parts until 1954. He appeared on BBC television as a senator in Othello in 1950 and Adabashev, Doran died in Folkestone on the south coast of England on 5 April 1964, at the age of 87. Such was his energy and enthusiasm that he kept alive for a few years the actor-manager system when the major talents, men like Tree, Benson. Doran was indeed the last of his theatrical breed, London, Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons

17.
John Drew (actor)
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John Drew was an Irish-American stage actor and theatre manager. Born Jonathan Henry Drewland in Dublin, Ireland, to Thomas L, Drew and Louise Kanten, he was the fifth of six children. He lived in Templeogue, a poor Irish village in County Dublin during the 19th century, in 1832, John Drew emigrated to the United States with his family to Boston, Massachusetts. As a child he spent most of his living in Boston. This is where he first got into acting, a younger brother, Frank Drew, also became an actor. After moving to the United States, Drew got a job in the company of Joseph J. Johlen. He appeared in a number of Johlens plays, including Uncle Mutch, The Barber Man, Canterbury of Livingston, Drew made his first New York appearance in 1846. He played Irish and light comedy parts with success in many American cities, John married Louisa Lane in 1848 this being her third marriage and his first. They had three children, Louisa, John Jr. and Georgiana, the two of whom were accomplished actors. Drew died at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of 34, after tripping, falling. He was buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Philadelphia, which was later closed, after his death, his wife Louisa took over the management of the Arch Street Theatre. Moses, Famous Actor-Families in America John Drew Sr at the Internet Broadway Database John Drew Sr formal portrait John Drew Sr portrait

18.
Ronnie Drew
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Joseph Ronald Ronnie Drew was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor who achieved international fame during a fifty-year career recording with The Dubliners. He is most recognised for his vocals on the single Seven Drunken Nights. He was recognisable for his beard and his voice, which was once described by Nathan Joseph as being like the sound of coke being crushed under a door. Ronnie Drew was born in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin in 1934, a quip that Andy Irvine relayed in his song ODonoghues. Drew was educated at CBS Eblana and used to mitch and cycle up to Leopardstown Racecourse, despite his aversion to education, he was considered the most intelligent in his class by schoolfriend and future Irish film censor, Sheamus Smith. Drew had also sung as a boy soprano before his voice broke, in the 1950s, Drew moved to Spain to teach English and learn Spanish and flamenco guitar. His interest in music began at the age of 19. In 1962, he founded the Ronnie Drew Group with Luke Kelly, Barney McKenna and they soon changed their name to The Dubliners—with John Sheahan joining shortly afterwards to form the definitive line-up—and quickly became one of the best known Irish folk groups. They played at first in ODonoghues Pub in Merrion Row, Dublin 2 where they were accompanied by Mary Jordan on the spoons and vocalist Ann Mulqueen. Mary Jordans mother, Peggy Jordan, introduced them to the Abbey Tavern in Howth and they also played across the road in the Royal Hotel, at all-night parties in Peggys large house in Kenilworth Square in Rathgar, and in John Molloys flat at Ely Place. He rejoined The Dubliners in 1979 and left for good in 1995 and he made several television appearances with the group between 2002–05. From 1995 onwards, Drew pursued a solo career and he recorded with many artists, including Christy Moore, The Pogues, Antonio Breschi, Dropkick Murphys, Eleanor Shanley and others. He did a number of one-man shows—he was accompanied by various guitarists—during this period, such as Songs and Stories, Ronnie, I Hardly Knew Ya and Ronnie. These shows consisted of stories about such as Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh and Seán OCasey. He fronted a campaign to encourage the use of Dublins light-rail infrastructure and, before that and he narrated a retelling of the great Irish Myths and Legends—scripted by Steven Byrne—over a six CD set in 2006. He also narrated the stories of Oscar Wilde in his voice for a series released on CD by the News of the World newspaper. Both were re-released as CD box sets in 2010, on 22 August 2006, Drew was honoured in a ceremony where his hand prints were added to the Walk of Fame outside Dublins Gaiety Theatre. In September 2006, Drew was reported to be in ill-health after being admitted to St. Vincents Hospital, Dublin, the Evening Herald reported that his apparent illness was due to years of heavy drinking

19.
Edmund Falconer
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Edmund Falconer, born Edmund ORourke, he was an Irish poet, actor, theatre manager, songwriter and playwright, known for his keen wit and outstanding acting skills. Edmund ORourke was born in Dublin around 1814 and he entered the theatrical world as a child, however he did not achieve fame until he was over 40. The first half of his life was spent playing in repertory theatre in Ireland. While working as a actor, he published his first volume of poems – Mans Mission – in 1852. ORourke finally achieved success at the age of 41, when he performed two very diverse roles in Hamlet and the comedy Three Fingered Jack on the night at the Adelphi Theatre in Liverpool in 1854. He received such rave reviews that he never had to tour the provinces again, two years later he changed his stage name to Edmund Falconer and wrote his first successful play, The Cagot or Heart for Heart. It was the start of his career, that of a London dramatist. Heart for Heart was performed with success for the first time at the Lyceum Theatre, London, under Charles Dillons management. The Athenaeum newspaper commented that the dialogue is remarkable for noble sentiment and his next piece was A Husband for an Hour, produced at the Haymarket Theatre in June 1857. The year 1858 saw Falconer translate Victor Hugos Ruy Blas, which was performed at the Princess Theatre in late 1858, during that same year, he began a profitable collaboration with Michael William Balfe by writing the libretto for his much-loved opera The Rose of Castille. Falconer, who was said to have had energy, also turned his attention to theatre managing. It was on 26 August 1858, that he took over the Lyceum Theatre in London, Falconer was not above using his position to stage his own plays. The first was Extremes, a comedy of manners, which was performed on his night of 26 August. A reporter for The Times reviewed the show and said, The characters are sharply defined, several more of Falconers own pieces soon followed, including Francesca in March 1859. Falconer gave up his management of the Lyceum after just a couple of years, yet more of his own plays soon followed, including Woman, Love Against The World in August 1861 and Peep o Day in November 1861. It is for Peep o Day, a stage-version of John Banim’s novels John Doe and The Nowlans and it contained a scene in which the heroine is saved from live burial and ran until December 1862. Meanwhile, he contributed two comedies to the Haymarket Theatre, too, Family Wills and Does He Love Me. both starring Amy Sedgwick and it was not until 1860 that Falconer managed to dominate the London stage with his acting skills, rather than his writing. In the first production of Boucicaults The Colleen Bawn he played the part of Danny Mann, the melodrama, staged at the Adelphi Theatre in July 1860, proved hugely popular and ran for 231 nights